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We didn’t just stuff our faces with food during our summer holiday (though, from my past few posts, it probably seems that way!) We also did a whole lotta shopping in the cutest and kookiest places we could find, from Tokyo Station to Nakano Broadway and, of course, Harajuku, here are some of my favorite kawaii finds! 💖

Thank glob for Sanrio Gift Gates, those heavenly pink portals into an alternate universe, where money seems to float from your pockets as your arms grow heavier and heavier with the weight of totally unnecessary, unbearably adorable things. Rejoice, people of Seoul, for deep inside the shopping haven that is COEX lays a Sanrio Gift Gate of our own! (It is, as far as I know, the only one in Seoul…possibly the only one in Korea?!)

Y’know when you’re having one of those days when you just need to be completely smothered by wall-to-wall cute stuff? No? Well, I get that kinda sensation all the time (hence why my apartment is a bubblegum pink Hello Kitty explosion…) When I get that sorta feeling, and a holiday to Tokyo is nowhere to be seen, I like to skip on over to Hongdae for the next best thing…

Last week we set off to Japan for our summer holidays (our fifth trip to Japan! Bwaha!) Last year, our hagwon only allotted us 4 days of vacation at a time, but this year we got a whole week off for summer (and we may very well be getting ten days off for winter; amazing or what?!) We divided our week in Japan into hotel stays in Kyoto and Tokyo, with day trips to Osaka, Hiroshima, and Miyajima. I had grand delusions of squeezing in day trips to Nikko, Okunoshima (a.k.a. Rabbit Island), and Mt. Fuji as well, but there just wasn’t enough time (a great excuse to go back again, right?!)

We flew into Haneda Airport in Tokyo, and thanks to our 7-Day Japan Railways passes, hopped onto the Shinkansen straight down to Kyoto. About the JR passes: holy shmoly, these things were quite possibly the smartest holiday purchases we’ve ever made! You have to buy them before entering Japan (from this website), and at $281 per pass they will seem a tad overpriced, but TRUST ME: if you have any intention of traveling between at least two cities, you will certainly get your money’s worth and then some. You can also use the pass to make seat reservations on Shinkansen trains at no extra charge, and you can use them on local JR trains. I have no idea how much money we saved by using these things, but it was a buttload.

We stayed at the super swanky ANA Crowne Plaza hotel in Kyoto, which I got for a ridiculously cheap deal on Expedia. We stopped in at an information office in Kyoto Station to find out how to get to the hotel, and an exceptionally polite and kind old man informed us that the hotel operated a free shuttle bus between Kyoto Station and the hotel every 15 minutes or so; this also saved us heaps of money!

This was our second visit to Kyoto; we fell head over heels in love with it the first time, and our feelings only intensified during this trip.

I am always amazed by how seamlessly Japan weaves its past and present together, and this is so evident in Kyoto, where its brightly-lit shopping arcades are punctuated by dim alleys leading to tiny shrines and ancient relics.

UPDATED: November 2014.I updated the directions, since TGIFriday’s is gone and Forever 21 has opened! Also, 1300k seems to have stopped carrying Hello Kitty merchandise, so check out the Sanrio Gift Gate instead! ♥

This post is dedicated to my all-time fave shop in Hongdae for everything cute and quirky: 1300k! (Just don’t ask me how to pronounce it! ‘Book’, ’13-ook’? Your guess is as good as mine!)

Korea is globally renowned for its shopping. Whether you’re into luxury goods, cosmetics, street fashion, or smartphones, you can find so many amazing bargains here. The biggest mistake I made when we first moved here was shopping in the big department stores (Lotte, Hyundai, and Shinsegae) where clothes and cosmetics are stupidly expensive, even when they’re on sale. The best places for clothes shopping here are actually usually in little boutiques or underground street fashion shops. My all-time fave shopping streets in Seoul are Apgujeong-ro and Garosu-gil in Sinsa-dong, where funky, independent shops sit nestled in between luxury brands and chain stores.